Return
by Cat2000
Summary: The original Power Rangers are called back together when a new evil threatens the earth. The original Power Rangers being Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, Zack, and Tommy. Rating for references to sex and violence
1. Chapter One

**Return**

**Chapter One**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and I'm not making any money from this fic. I do, however, lay claim to the original character Regina (who does _not_ have anything to do with the Regina in Regina's Song, btw)

**Summary:** The _original_ Power Rangers are called back together when a new evil threatens the earth. The original Power Rangers being Jason, Kimberly, Trini, Billy, Zack, and Tommy

**Author's Note:** Anyone want to buy a plot bunny? They're cheap!

That said, I apologise for anyone being out of character in this story... But this is going to be set a number of years later, so they won't be exactly the same anyway, will they? Anyways, Jason is in a relationship with the original character Regina, but I'll let readers decide which other characters get paired up together

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Jason stirred, and pulled the still sleeping Regina closer to him, careful not to wake her. He was perfectly content to just lie there with her, but knew that he would have to get up and go to work soon.

Jason caught sigh of the clock. _Or maybe not so soon,_ he amended. He hadn't realised how early it really was.

Jason dropped a light kiss onto Regina's forehead, and smiled as the woman's eyes fluttered open. "Hey, Sweetie," he said softly.

Regina blinked blearily up at him, then sat up to look at the clock. "Is it time to get up?"

"Not yet," Jason answered, slipping an arm around Regina and hugging her close to him once again.

Regina squirmed a little against him. "_Jason_," she whined.

Jason chuckled a little. "_Regina_," he mocked gently.

Regina frowned, but allowed Jason to tuck her against him.

Regina was attractive, but couldn't really be described as 'pretty'. She had dirty blonde hair down to just below her shoulders, and grey eyes that were usually soft but could look like steel when she was angry. Her skin was quite pale because she didn't tan very easily, only burned, and her ears stuck out a little.

After a few moments, Regina asked, "Do you want me to cook some breakfast?"

"No," was the reply.

"Can I do some work around the house?"

"No."

"Are you going to let me go any time soon?" Regina asked plaintively.

Jason thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No," he answered.

Regina sighed.

Jason didn't know why, but Regina _hated_ being hugged. He figured that it must embarrass her or something. Jason, on the other hand, took every opportunity to be close to his girlfriend, and he was determined to make Regina learn to at least _tolerate_ being hugged.

Jason kissed Regina's hair. "Mm. You smell nice."

"Idiot." Regina laughed affectionately. "That's the flowers you smell." She nodded to the vase some distance away.

"Same thing." Jason turned Regina's head towards him, and kissed her softly. It was much gentler than the kisses of the previous night. Then again, those had been kisses of passion. This one was merely to say, _I love you._

Jason pulled back gently from Regina, and cupped the back of her head. The fingers of his other hand traced idly over her face, causing Regina to close her eyes and make a sound that was almost a purr in response to Jason's attention.

Jason had to admit that the past few weeks had been hard on the both of them and had put a tremendous strain on their relationship. In fact, Regina had decided that she wanted to see other people. When she had told Jason this, he had simply given his acceptance and then waited.

And Regina had come back to him with a tearful apology which Jason had immediately accepted. If anything, that time had helped them to grow even closer to each other.

"I'm sore," Regina complained suddenly, pulling Jason from his thoughts.

Jason laughed a little. "Me too," he admitted. "You're a little vixen, Regina. I feel like I'm absolutely _covered_ in scratches."

"Mm." Regina's fingers went up to lightly touch one of the bites on her neck. Last night had been... different. Jason was usually so careful with Regina, treating her as if she was extremely fragile. But last night had been filled with passion and desire instead of the usual gentle, sensual nights filled with laughter as the two explored each other's bodies. There had been a kind of urgency in their lovemaking last night, and neither had cared about trying to be gentle with each other.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you at all," Jason was saying. "I was a little out of control last night, and I apologise..."

Regina touched a finger to his lips to silence him. "There's no need to apologise," she told him. "I kind of... liked it." A small blush coloured her cheeks.

Jason chuckled softly, and then brushed his lips over Regina's. His hand stroked gently down her spine, feeling her arch a little beneath his touch. He moved his lips to her neck, and kissed her there.

At just that moment, the phone rang.

Jason sat back with a sigh as Regina lifted the phone and put it to her ear. "Hello. Regina speaking." She listened for a moment, then handed the phone to Jason. "It's for you," she said.

Jason took the phone from Regina, and put it to his ear. "Hey, Jason here."

Regina took that moment to escape into the bathroom. She only bothered to take a towel with her. She and Jason had gone way past the point where modesty was necessary in their relationship.

"Hi, Jase, how are you?" a familiar voice asked.

Jason grinned. "Hey, Tommy!" he responded. "I haven't heard from you in a while. How have you been?"

"Fine, but there's a problem," Tommy answered. "A serious problem."

"How come you only ever make contact with me when there's something bad going on?" Jason pretended to sound hurt.

"Sorry, Jase," Tommy responded, sounding contrite. "I keep on meaning to call you, but you know how it is. I've been _really_ busy."

"It's all right, Tommy," Jason said. "I understand. I was only teasing you."

"Oh, ok." There was a pause, then Tommy asked, "What happened to Emily?"

"We grew apart," Jason answered simply. "I missed having her in my life for a little while, but then I met Regina, who I grew to really care about." Jason hesitated, then added, "About the reason why you called me..."

"I can't really tell you over the phone," Tommy replied, cutting Jason off. "It would be better if we were to talk about it in person. Can you meet me in the park in a couple of hours?"

Jason frowned a little. "Tommy, I _do_ have work to get to, you know."

"I know, so do I," Tommy commented. "But this is _really_ important, Jase. I wouldn't be asking you if it wasn't."

"I know," Jason sighed. "All right. I'll see you in two hours at the park. Bye Tommy."

"Bye Jase," Tommy replied, and put the phone down.

Jason looked up as Regina walked back into the room wearing only a towel, and held out his arms to her. "Come here."

Regina blinked. "But I'm wet," she offered in an attempt to protest.

"I don't care," Jason responded. "I want to hold you, Regina."

Regina hesitated, then crawled onto the bed and let Jason enfold her in his arms, towel and all.

The former red ranger reached out, and lifted up a hairbrush from the bedside table, and then started brushing Regina's hair.

Regina squirmed a little. "You're going to make the bed all wet," she complained.

"Doesn't matter." Jason lifted Regina's hair, and gently kissed the back of her neck. His hands then moved to gently remove the towel from Regina's body, and he laid back on the bed, pulling Regina down with him and letting the hairbrush slip to the ground.

Two hours was plenty of time.

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Read and review, please!

I apologise for this being so short... I was going to write all of them meeting up in this chapter, but I'm not entirely sure how Kimberly and Tommy should react to each other. Any comments and/or suggestions would be extremely helpful!


	2. Chapter Two

**Return**

**Chapter Two**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and I'm not making any money from this fic

**Replies to reviews:**

**trunks888:** Well, it really depends on which fandom you have the idea for , and also what the idea is. Really, I need an idea which grabs me pretty much straight away. Anyways, thanks for reviewing

**Wen:** Well, chapter two's here. Thanks for reviewing

**Mandie:** I don't think that would work - it's been quite a while since the whole thing with the letter (is that right? I never saw that episode...) Depending on how this fic turns out, they _might_ get together in it... But I don't know yet. Anyways, thanks for reviewing

**angelbaby:** Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

**rembrandt:** Actually, I was never planning on writing anything like that, simply because I have no idea what happened in the episode. The main reason I asked about Tommy and Kimberly was because, in my opinion, those two are harder to write, at least for me. Anyways, thanks for reviewing (and it's easier to know how they'll react to each other as Tommy's the instigator of this meeting)

**Ryan T Morris:** Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked the first chapter

**jean:** Here's chapter two

**garnetred:** Well, like I said above -points- I'm not planning on writing anything like that. And as for Tommy and Kimberly still having feelings for each other? I'm not sure about that, either. Again, I said it above. Anyways, thanks for reviewing

**Anonymous person:** Ok, first of all, it's usually polite to at least leave some sort of username, just so that people can identify you. For example, if there was another anonymous review, leaving no username, I wouldn't know if it was the same person. Secondly... Well, I've already pointed out everything above. I see your point about the whole Tommy/Kimberly thing, and I've just realised the mistake I made, as I meant to ask about _all_ of the characters, but I must have been half-asleep while I was writing up that last bit. Anyways, I apologise for that, and thanks for reviewing anyway

**CamFan4Ever:** Well... Just see above . Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

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Jason walked unhurriedly to the park. He still had plenty of time, and he wasn't sure what the big emergency was. Tommy hadn't been very clear over the phone, but Jason supposed that that was because he hadn't had a choice.

Tommy was already there, sitting on a bench. As soon as he saw Jason, he stood up, and hurried over to his friend. "Hey, man," he said with a relieved smile. "Glad you were able to make it."

"Yeah, it was sort of difficult to explain to Regina why I had to leave so suddenly without telling her too much," Jason responded with a smile. "So what's the big emergency, Tommy?" he asked then.

Before the former white ranger could respond, the two heard someone call out to them.

"Hey, Trini," Jason smiled as the pretty woman made her way over to them, smiling at them both. "Do _you_ know why we're here?"

"I don't know any more than you do," the former yellow ranger answered.

"It's got to be something big for Tommy to call _all_ of the original Power Rangers together for a really important meeting," Billy said as he walked over.

_He's changed a lot,_ Jason thought to himself as he watched the former blue ranger come over and shake hands with each of them. _Being Power Rangers changed _all_ of us, of course... But I think that Billy was changed the most._

"Are you doing okay on Aquitar, Billy?" Trini asked.

Billy smiled and nodded. "It's great there," he responded. He then looked at Tommy. "It's a good job I took a communicator with me when I left," he said. "You probably wouldn't have been able to contact me otherwise."

"I'm sure I would have found a way," Tommy grinned.

"Hey, are we missing anything?" Zack called as he and Kimberly came into the park and headed over to the others.

"No, you're not missing anything," Tommy replied. "I haven't even started explaining things yet. I figured it would be easier to wait until everyone was here. That way, I wouldn't have to explain things twice." The former white ranger looked around at the five others, and slowly shook his head. "Man, it's so good to see you all again," he smiled.

"Yeah, just like old times," Zack grinned.

"Should we maybe go someplace a bit more private?" Kimberly suggested. "Depending on what you're going to tell us, Tommy, we might not want to be overheard."

"Yeah, you're right," Tommy agreed. "It might be a good idea to go somewhere more private, as what I need to tell you guys is really important."

Jason glanced around at the others, thinking a moment, then said, "Why don't we all go back to my place? Regina should be gone by now, and she probably won't be back until quite late." Jason's girlfriend took a lot of evening courses, as well as her job during the day, which was a manager in a clothes shop. Regina really wanted to design clothes, though, and that was the reason for all of the evening courses she was taking.

"Are you sure about that?" Tommy asked his friend. "What I have to say might take a while, and I don't particularly want your girlfriend to walk in while I'm in the middle of saying something really important which she really shouldn't overhear."

"Oh, Jason has a girlfriend," Zack grinned, teasing the former red ranger.

Ignoring Zack's teasing, Jason ran Regina's schedule through his mind. Yeah, she definitely had an evening course on that night, and she usually found it easier to grab a bite to eat in town after she'd finished at work, and then go straight to her course. And then, she'd usually ring Jason to let him know when she was coming back.

"Yeah, she'll be out for most of the day," Jason answered. "I've got my bike with me. Come on. You guys can follow me."

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Jason let himself into the house, and held the door open for the others to come through. "The living room's that way," he said, pointing. "Does anyone want some coffee?"

There were a few murmurs of assent.

"Could I have a soft drink, like squash or juice, please?" Kimberly requested, as Trini nodded, obviously wanting a soft drink as well.

"Sure," Jason responded. He moved into the kitchen, while the others all trooped into the living room.

As usual, the kitchen was neat and orderly, a stark contrast to the rest of the house. Not that the rest of the house was _really_ messy, but there were fashions magazines and pieces of paper strewn out everywhere, along with pencils and pens. Regina preferred having paper and pens where she could get to them easily, just in case inspiration struck. She didn't want to have to go hunting through drawers and cupboards and boxes, among other places, for things to draw with and on.

Jason made four cups of coffee and two squashes, then took them through to the others, careful to only carry two cups at a time. The last thing he wanted to do was spill scalding coffee on the carpet.

As soon as Jason had carried in all of the drinks, he sat down on one of the armchairs. Billy, Trini, and Kimberly were on the sofa, Tommy was in one of the other armchairs, and Zack was seated on the floor.

"So... Are you going to tell us what's happening now?" Billy asked Tommy with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, sure," Tommy replied. Then, he sighed. "Listen, guys," he said. "There's a big bad out there."

"So, there have been loads of big bads before," Zack protested.

"Yeah, why do _we_ have to fight?" Kimberly wanted to know. "Haven't we already done enough? We've all got jobs, our own lives..."

"I see your point, Kim," Trini said. "But, seriously, if we _are_ needed, can we really say no?"

"Probably not," Kim conceded. She looked at Tommy. "But is there no way that anyone else could possibly defeat this big bad?"

The former white ranger slowly shook his head. "No, it needs all of the original Power Rangers," he answered. "The thing is known as Crystalina, and it wants to devour the whole world. It has its own arsenal of monsters, and has dark powers beyond anything we, or any other teams of Power Rangers, have been against."

"Well, we don't have a choice, then," Zack said simply. "We _have_ to take on the responsibilities of being Power Rangers again."

"But what about the Power Coins?" Billy questioned. "Our ones don't exist anymore."

"There _are_ new ones," Tommy responded. "But we have to find them. They're for the Mythan Rangers."

"The Mythan Rangers?" Jason frowned.

Tommy nodded slowly, and counted on his fingers. "The Unicorn, the Basilisk, the Griffin, the Phoenix, the Dragon, and the Pegasus."

"Do you have any idea where the Power Coins might be?" Jason asked Tommy.

Tommy shrugged a little. "Not really," he answered. He then took some morphers out of his rucksack, and handed them out. "There's a limited amount of morphs there," he said. "Until we get the Power Coins, you're going to need to use them wisely. We'll need to find a base to use at some point. For now, the morphers will go off once a monster appears."

At just that moment, their morphers went off.

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Read and review, please!

Ok, what do you all think? It seems a bit rushed to me, but then again... -Shrugs- Anyways, any ideas about base/monster they're about to go off and fight? I'm anxious to hear any ideas people have got. (Ok, maybe hear isn't the right word... But you know what I mean)


	3. Chapter Three

**Return**

**Chapter Three**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, and I'm not making any money from this fic. I do, however, own the Mythans, Crystalina, and the original characters Regina and Hal - Regina's twin brother

**Replies to reviews:**

**IsabellaPaige:** Thanks for reviewing, here's the next chapter

**panther:** Well, I don't know about couples. I'm just going to write, and see what happens. Of course, I _will_ bear different couples in mind, but I'm not sure how well Tommy and Kimberly would work

**Lady Vader 074:** Well, I've thought of ideas for monsters . A cave sounds like a good idea, but it would need to be one which didn't have any leaks or anything, as they'd probably have to store their equipment in it. Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you think it's good so far

**CamFan4Ever:** Really? Actually, I got the name Crystalina from this really cool shop I go in sometimes . It has loads of neat ornaments in, and the people are really nice. Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

**zee:** Thanks for reviewing, and here's the next chapter

**Wen:** Glad you liked it, and thanks for reviewing

**aj:** Here's the next chapter . Thanks for reviewing

**BlueAngel07:** Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked it

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Jason looked down at his morpher as it went off, then at Tommy. "Can we teleport?" he wanted to know.

Tommy nodded. "Yeah, we can," he answered. "We can zone in on the area the monster is in using our morphers."

"All right, let's go, then." Kimberly stood up, and so did Trini.

"Should we morph _before_ we teleport?" Jason asked.

"Why don't we wait and see what we're up against first?" Tommy suggested. "We might not need to morph this time, so there would be no point in wasting the power straight away."

"Well, let's go, then," Zack said.

The six teleported.

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Regina's head was bent over the drawing she was doing, her hair tied back in an untidy ponytail, a few strands escaping and falling into her eyes.

"Hey, how are you doing with your design?" Regina's friend, black-haired Cari, asked in a low voice.

"Ok, I guess," Regina responded, moving slightly so that Cari could see what she was doing. "It's a hooded green dress with elaborate patterns stitched on it."

"Neat," Cari said. "It's much better than mine. I just did a smart red coat."

"Well, if any of these were to be made, yours would probably catch on much quicker than mine," Regina smiled.

The lecturer glared at them, and Cari and Regina fell silent, concentrating on their work. Then, when she looked away from them, they grinned at each other.

Once the lecture was finished, Cari caught up with Regina. "Don't tell me you're going to go back to your house," she groaned.

Regina blinked at her friend in surprise. "What are you talking about, Cari?" she questioned. "Of _course_ I'm going to go back home. Jason will be waiting up for me."

Cari transferred her bag to her other shoulder, and frowned. "Regina, you were originally worried that he was seeing someone else," she reminded her friend.

Regina looked away, not wanting to be reminded of how jealous she had been. She saw now that she had just been being silly and paranoid. Jason loved her, and he didn't deserve her suspicion.

"Well, our relationship _was_ going through a rough patch then," Regina admitted. "It's better now, though."

"I'm glad about that," Cari smiled. "You certainly seem quite a bit happier."

Before Regina could respond, her mobile rang. She dug it out of her purse, and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, sis, it's Hal," Regina's twin brother said.

"Oh, hi, Hal," Regina replied. "What's up?"

Cari rolled her eyes, tossed her friend a wave, and then left the building to get to her car and meet whoever she was partying with that evening.

Hal was a police officer, though barely more than a rookie. It meant that he could pass on warnings to his sister, though he refused to give her any classified information.

"Regina, I'm going to come pick you up," Hal told his sister. "There's a black animal attacking people, and I don't want you to be outside on your own right now."

"But what about my car?" Regina asked with a frown.

"I'll get it towed," Hal answered. "Stay inside until I arrive." Then, he rang off.

Regina gave the phone a glare. It was just like her brother to tell her to do something, but not explain properly. But she knew that Hal only wanted to keep her safe, so she'd stay in the building.

For now, at least.

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The six teleported to where the signal of the monster was coming from.

"It's over there." Tommy nodded to where a big black animal was crushing cars and knocking people to one side.

"That just looks like a big black cat," Jason noted.

"Maybe it escaped from a zoo or something?" Zack suggested, a faintly hopeful note in his voice. They hadn't been Power Rangers for quite some time, and it wasn't easy to slip back into the whole hero routine.

"How many zoos keep big black cats?" Trini asked. "It must be one of Crystalina's monsters."

"Yeah, so we'd better morph," Billy put in.

"Right," Tommy said. He had already briefed the others on how to call on their Power Ranger forms. "The Mythan Power Rangers! Unicorn!"

"Pegasus!" Kimberly.

"Griffin!" Trini.

"Dragon!" Billy.

"Phoenix!" Jason.

"Basilisk!" Zack.

They morphed, the images of each of their animals appearing as a faint outline in the air around them before wrapping around them and changing to the Power Ranger suits.

"All right, let's go!" Tommy exclaimed.

The six Power Rangers raced towards the black cat, even though each of them had their doubts as to whether this thing was actually one of Crystalina's monsters or not.

However, those doubts quickly faded when the black cat whirled on them and hissed, revealing a forked tongue, just like a snake.

"Ew, that's just horrible," Kimberly commented.

The cat swiped at the Power Rangers with a paw, and managed to swipe Billy across the chest. The blue ranger cried out as he felt the claws gouge him through his ranger suit.

"Billy!" Trini cried.

"I'm ok." But Billy groaned a little as he pushed himself back up again.

Jason pulled out his blaster, and fired at the snake-cat. The animal shook its head slightly, then growled at Jason, and aimed a swipe at the red ranger. Jason dodged, but still felt icy claws rake across his back. He stumbled a little, wondering if his back was bleeding.

"Guys, pull yourself together!" Tommy yelled. "We're not going to be beaten by a big cat, right?!"

"Right!"

"Dragon Lance!" Billy pulled the sword out, and it lengthened enough so that the blue ranger could strike at the cat from a safe distance away.

The cat whirled on the blue ranger, its yellow eyes spitting fire.

"Phoenix Katana!" Jason pulled out his katana, and struck at the cat as fire flared along the katana's edge.

"Unicorn Horn!" Tommy struck at the cat with a weapon shaped like a white unicorn's horn.

"Griffin Blaster!" Trini fired at the cat.

"Pegasus Cannon!" Kimberly also fired at the cat.

"Basilisk Blade!" Zack struck at the cat with a sword that appeared to be made out of a type of rock.

Unable to defend itself against so many attacks, the cat broke apart. However, it broke apart into cloaked humanoid shapes which hissed with forked tongues at the Power Rangers.

"Snake men," Tommy observed.

"Well, it had to have _some_ form of evil minions," Zack said.

"I've never liked snakes." Trini shuddered.

"FREEZE!" a voice yelled suddenly.

The Power Rangers glanced over, and saw a police officer with short black hair standing next to a police car, aiming a gun at the snake men. Standing next to him was a woman with long dirty-blonde hair.

"Regina and Hal," Jason groaned.

Tommy turned his helmeted head towards his friend. "Who's Hal?"

"Regina's twin brother," Jason answered. "He's a police officer."

"Yeah, the uniform kind of gave it away," Zack pointed out.

Hal slowly edged forward, still aiming the gun at the snake men, while Regina remained behind, leaning against the police car, watching her brother with narrowed eyes.

_What's she doing, getting a ride with her brother?_ Jason wondered. _She has her own car, after all. Unless, of course, Hal found out about the snake-cat, and decided to pick her up so that he'd know that she was safe._

Still aiming the gun at the snake men, Hal turned his gaze towards the Power Rangers. "Who are you guys?" he asked.

"We're the Power Rangers," Tommy answered, taking a slight step forward.

Disbelief flared in the police officer's eyes. "Yeah, right," he said, clearly not believing them. "And I'm Santa Claus. Who are you really?"

Jason had to give Hal credit. You'd never know that he'd just left rookie status behind. He handled himself like a pro. Unfortunately, that also meant that he wouldn't leave without getting some answers.

However, while Hal had been talking to the Power Rangers, the snake men hadn't just been standing still. Taking advantage of the officer's distraction, one of them had lunged towards Regina. Hal had reacted quickly, but he still found that his gun had now ended up pointing at his sister, who the snake man was using as a shield.

Jason stiffened slightly. If the snake man's claws hadn't been centimeters away from his girlfriend's throat, he would have attacked. But he wasn't going to risk Regina being hurt or even killed.

"Let her go," Hal said, slowly.

The snake man didn't move.

Slowly, Hal lowered his gun. He was unwilling to take chances with Regina's life as well.

"We can't just let them get away," Tommy whispered to Jason. "We might have to take a chance, just to prevent them from being able to return to Crystalina, and reporting what's just happened."

"I know," Jason responded.

"I'll be ready," Kimberly whispered to them. "I can probably get a shot if Regina isn't in the way for a moment."

"You go, girl," Zack whispered back.

The snake man gestured imperiously to the Power Rangers with it's free hand, indicating for them to lower their weapons. The claws of its other hand were still near to Regina's throat.

Suddenly, Regina twisted aside, away from the claws. The snake man managed to cut her neck, but the woman fell away from him, landing on her hands and knees.

Kimberly fired.

The snake man stood frozen in shock for a moment, then collapsed onto the ground, its body disintegrating as it did so.

"Get out of here!" Tommy yelled to Regina and Hal.

Hal stared at them, but Regina grabbed his wrist, and pulled him towards the car. Hal hesitated, then got in as well, and drove off.

Jason turned his attention to the snake men, now that he was pretty sure that Regina was going to be all right.

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Once the fight was over, Jason teleported himself back to his house, so that he was outside it before demorphing. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for an argument with Regina about how late he was in.

Jason unlocked the front door, and walked in.

Regina was sitting on the settee, a plaster on her neck, where the snake man had cut her. She shot Jason a glare as he came in. "Where have _you_ been?" she demanded. She looked tired, and rather mad.

"Out," Jason replied truthfully.

"At _this_ time?"

Jason shrugged a little. "I was catching up with some old friends," he answered. That was actually partly the truth. He just wasn't going to tell Regina exactly _what_ he was doing with his friends. "What happened to your neck?" he asked, not having to fake the concern. He hadn't got a chance to see just how badly hurt she was when she and Hal had left.

"Don't change the subject!" Regina snapped. "I bet you were out with some girl."

Jason stared at her. _Not this _again "No, I was not," he replied flatly.

"Why won't you tell me where you were, then?" Regina demanded, her voice in danger of rising to a screech.

"I _did_," Jason insisted.

"That wasn't an explanation, that was an evasion!"

Jason sighed. "I'm really not in the mood for this tonight," he said. "I'm going upstairs to bed. Good night." He left the room.

"Don't you _dare_ walk away from me!" Regina screeched.

Jason ignored her, and just continued walking.

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Read and review, please!

Heh... Well, considering how I wrote that Regina acted before, it would make sense for her to be really suspicious when Jason walks in late


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